The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-02-25
FEMALE SPIES.
Their LabOrS and Intrigues at the
Capital.

OF this band d active and useful pI6t-
tiers, who were constantly engaged play.
ing into the hands of the Confederates
under the very shadow of the Capitol
some of the women of Washington were
the busiest. The intriguing nature of
these danes appear to have found
especial delight in forwarding the
schemes of the leaders in the movement
to overthrow the Washington govern
ment. 1t mattered not that most of
them owed all they possessed of fortune
and position to that Federal govern
ment, and to the patronage, directly or
indirectly, they had received from it.
This very fact lent spice of daring to
the deed, while an irresistible attraction
was furnished in the fact that they were
plotting the ruin of a government which
had fallen into the hands of that
northern majority whom, with all the
scorn Of "parrician" blood, they des-
pissed and detested.
Mrs. Rose o. H. Greenhow was the
most adroit of the Confederate ennis
saries. The sister of Mrs. Cults mother
of Mrs. Douglass, and the widow of a
clerk in the State Department, who had
written valuable work on Oregon, her
social position gave her remarkable
facilities for obtaining Information. ust
before the battle of Bull Run she con-
trIved to convey to the enemy news
obtained from a New England Senator
with regard to the intended movements |
of the Federals. This communication, |
In her own opinion, decided the battle. |
n rnfVr ho 4.
from the Confederate acknowledgement: |
Our president and our general direct |
me to thank you. We rely upon you for |
further information. The Confederacy
owes you debt"
Mrs. Greenhow's house was finally
used as prison for finale spies. The
windows lookicg on the street were
boarded up and special military guard
occupied tents pitched in the garden.
Mrs. CIR enhow and her pretty daugh-
ter Rose were the presiding deities.
Then there was Mrs. Phillips, daughter
of ]. G. Levy. of Charleston, s. c., where
she married Philip Phillips, who after
ward removed to Mobile and was
elected there to the Thirty-third
Congress. Declining o reelection, he
remained at Washington City, where he
had a lucrative practice before the
Supreme Court. Mrs. Phillips, although
he mother of nine children, found time
10 obtain and transmit information 10
General Beauregard, and after having
been closely guarded for while. she
vas permitted to 60 south on her parole
md that of her father, that she would
lot give laid or comfort to the enemy"
Mrs. Bailey, Mrs. Hasler, Miss Lilly
4. Mackle, Mrs. Levy and other lady
prisoners had all been more or less
prominent in Southern society at
Washington, and had made trips over
he Underground railroad between Alex
.ndria and Richmond. Also an English
ady, Mrs. Elena Low, who had been
arrested at Boston, with her son, who
lad crossed the ocean bearing a COM
mission in the Confederate army. Miss
9. NJ Poole, alias Stewart, had been
and funds between the two
camps, and when arrested the last time
here was found concealed on her
person 81. 800 of unexpended funds.
Another devoted friend of the Confed.
crates, who resided just outside the
Union lines in Virginia, managed to
ascinate General Stoughton, young
West Point cavalry officer, and one
evening while he was enjoying her
ocietv, during a 'serenade by regi
mental band, he, with his band and
was surprised and captured,
md sent as prisoners-of-war to Rich
nond. 81 do not mind losing the
said Mr.. Lincoln, in talking
about the capture, "for they are easily :
made, but there were some twenty
lorses taken and they cost $125 apiece"
From "Reminiscences" by Ben: Par
ey Poore.